We all have a moral compass that points us in the direction we’ll take in all kinds of situations.

But some situations have so many complicating factors thrown in that even the most empathetic people may have trouble deciphering what’s “right” — officially, in the sense of Right and Wrong.

A situation like that just came up in Manitoba, where a man was driving himself and his pregnant wife back to their home in rural Manitoba after a shopping trip in Winnipeg in March.

They were travelling on long stretches of highway when the woman began having painful, close-together contractions.

She had been warned by her doctor that natural childbirth would put her and her baby at risk.

However, she is still five days away from the scheduled date of her C-section, which is still another week before she’s due.

Knowing his wife and their unborn child are at risk, the man puts the pedal to the metal to get them to their hospital, where her medical records are kept.

He soars at speeds up to 170 km/h while his wife is in distress in the passenger’s seat.

While he’s going at breakneck speed, he gets pulled over.

He is slapped with a $1,000 speeding ticket. The traffic stop takes 15 precious minutes.

The police officer offers to get them an ambulance, but they refuse. The officer urges them not to speed as they continue on their way.

Their speed creeps up again and they are pulled over again about 30 minutes later. They get another speeding ticket, and are convinced to wait for the ambulance the second officer phones for them.

They wait approximately 15 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.

In the end, they make it to their hospital of choice, which contained all of her medical records explaining the situation.

Both she and the baby make it out of the emergency C-section and are now in good health.

But the couple is unhappy with the big tickets they were given for speeding in a medical emergency.

Shortly after the incident, the man appealed the ticket before a justice of the peace, armed with a doctor’s note supporting that his wife and child were in medical distress and it was reasonable for him to rush to their hospital, given the situation.

The judge dropped the ticket to $400.

Then, about three months after the original incident, the man gets called in for a hearing with the provincial insurance company, which is normal procedure for excessive speeding cases.

He ends up leaving that hearing with his driver’s licence suspended for five months. Before he can get it back, he’ll have to take a safe driving course and could face licence renewal fees of up to $1,000 a year.

And still, it’s not over. He has hearing this week to appeal the licence suspension.

It is easy to say what you would or wouldn’t do in this situation, or to condemn or condone the actions of others when it’s not your life, your partner’s life, or your baby’s life at risk.

The issue has proved quite divisive, as evidenced by the nearly 700 comments one version of the story posted online has accumulated.

Could they have waited for an ambulance the first time, which is a vehicle that can speed legally under the control of drivers trained to be calm in emergency situations?

Could they have stopped at a different, nearer hospital?

Could they have afforded to spend those minutes being still instead of getting her closer to the emergency room of the hospital with knowledge of her situation?

Nobody can say with any certainty at what point a few minutes would have been the difference between life or death — for the woman, the baby or both — but in the end, everybody made it out alive.

It is widely known that excessive speeding is dangerous, and not just for the occupants of the vehicle, but for everybody on the road.

While I sympathize with the family’s plight — no doubt full of panic, fear and frustration — excessive speeding also puts lives at risk.

There is no allowance in the Motor Vehicle Act for speeding if passengers or drivers are in a medical emergency. Ambulance personnel are trained to deal with medical emergencies and stabilize patients for transport to hospitals.

At the same time, I imagine a licence suspension is difficult for a 32-year-old father of two living in the country to work around, and would probably be difficult for most people who rely on their ability to drive legally to get from point A to point B.

With so many factors to consider in the extraordinary circumstances around these speeding tickets, it is almost luck of the draw when it comes to which factors will weigh most heavily on a hearing officer’s or justice of the peace’s decision.

In all, the man ended up with his licence suspended for five months, and his speeding ticket reduced to $400.

Paying a huge fee for licence renewal and jumping through hoops to get an allowance to drive to work will be a challenge for this young family, but I say count your blessings and let the chips fall where they may after this hearing.

We will see if a magistrate agrees.